The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus, image processing method, program for executing the image processing method, and storage medium that stores the program for executing the image processing method and more specifically to an art suitable for the medical field.
Conventionally, patient's images, such as X-ray images, have been developed as film and observed by an image inspector, such as a doctor, to serve for the diagnosis. Also, the technology has recently been developed that renders medical images, such as X-ray images, as image data and forms the data as images according to the necessity. This kind of technology has such advantages as it does not take up as much storage space as film does and the image quality does not deteriorate over time.
There are two methods for handling medical images as image data: one method that renders images in a medium such as film before being viewed, and another method that displays images on a monitor such as a CRT. When displaying images on a monitor, images are not always clearly viewed by an image interpreter depending on the part of the body, such as a chest, hand, or foot.
One reason for this problem is that the image's dynamic range or frequency is not compatible with the display environment of the monitor. For example, the dynamic range of a monitor is fixed at 1:700, and the frequency characteristics of the monitor tend to decrease on the high-frequency side. Specifically, the lung's blood vessels in the chest that appear as a relatively high-frequency image are difficult to interpret due to the characteristics of the monitor. However, images of bones in the hand or foot are mostly easy to interpret despite of the characteristics of the monitor. Therefore, how to make the image data compatible with the characteristics of the monitor is a problem.